St.

Lukes Ordinariate Parish Washington DC

The Epistle
Our Man in Houston
The gospel for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas) tells the story
of Christ being presented in the temple. William Cardinal Levada, preaching at the
ordination of Bishop Steven Lopes, said that while outwardly fulfilling the law, in
reality [Jesus] was coming to meet his believing people. Among the believing people
he met in the Jerusalem temple, the names of Simeon and Anna have sounded down
the ages. But the liturgy is not simply about a past event.

Volume 2, Issue 2

February 2016

On Candlemas Day in this year of grace 2016, the Cardinal continued, Jesus has
come again to meet his believing people in word and sacrament. The people of faith
Jesus has come to meet today is us, you and me the Church. And the name that
will go forward from this day in this encounter with Christ is that of Steven Joseph
Lopes.

At Houston's Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Monsignor Steven Lopes was

consecrated as the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
in a ceremony that has drawn widespread praise for its beauty and solemnity.
The principal consecrator was Gerhard Cardinal
Mller, Prefect for the Congregation of the
Doctrine of the Faith, where Bishop Lopes was
an official until Pope Francis appointed him as
bishop. Co-consecrators were Washington's
Donald Cardinal Wuerl, who has been a good
friend of the Ordinariate, and Cardinal Levada,
who recalled in his sermon that he had ordained
Bishop Lopes, a California native, to the
priesthood in 2001 when he was the Archbishop
of San Francisco.
The ordination, which featured a profusion of
cardinals, bishops, priests and lay faithful,
Knights of Columbus and Knights of Malta, was
packed. Between the Cardinals, Bishops, Priests,
Religious, and so many lay faithful, tonight is like
Catholic Candy Land, Tom Perna, an old friend
of the new bishop, couldn't resist saying.
Houston's Daniel Cardinal DiNardo had
graciously made the Cathedral available for the
consecration.

The bishop-elect had signed pledges and documents from Rome the day before at a
Vigil Evensong for Candlemas at Our Lady of Walsingham, the principal church
( and now Cathedral) of the American Ordinariate.

Bishop-elect Lopes
making his oath of
fidelity during
the Vigil Evensong

The Vigil Evensong at Our Lady of Walsingham took place at 5 pm but people
started arriving at 3:30 in order to get a seat. St. Luke's was well represented at the
events of Ordination Week. Father Mark and Vicky Lewis, with fifteen members of the
parish, made the journey to Houston to be part of this historic ordination. There they
saw Bishop Lopes kneel before the altar at Our Lady of Walsingham the night before
and sing the Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit) at the Evensong liturgy where he
made his profession of faith and signed documents from Rome.
Many people present at the ordination had a personal connection
with Bishop Lopes. Among them was Archbishop Augustine Di
Noia, O.P., who with Bishop Lopes helped give birth to and
nurture the Ordinariate. Archbishop Di Noia preached at the
Vigil Evensong the evening before the ordination. Sister Mary
Walsh, a nun from Lake Charles, Louisiana, made the journey
because she had gotten to know the bishop when she took a
course he taught in Rome. A group of nuns from Omaha,
Nebraska were there because they had become friends of Bishop
Lopes when he regularly went to Nebraska to help out his busy
friend from seminary, Father Jeffery Loseke. During the
ordination, Father Loseke served as one of the two chaplains to
the bishop.
The presence of so many old friends was testimony that Father
Loseke spoke the truth when he told the Houston Chronicle that

through the years he had been amazed at [Bishop Lopes'] ability to charm
people.He feels comfortable in every setting. He can go toe to toe with academics,
the powerful, yet be comfortable in a downstairs family room with parishioners. He's
a real person.
The ceremony was a seamless blend of the Ordinariate's Divine Worship Missal and
the Roman Rite ordination rite. Many in the cathedral for the first time heard such
beloved prayers as our Collect for Purity, Prayer of Humble Access, and corporate
Thanksgiving after the reception of Holy Communion, while some of ordinariate
members may have witnessed for the first time such beautiful features of the Roman
Rite for Ordination of a Bishop as the anointing of the bishop's head with oil and his
investiture with ring, mitre, and pectoral staff. Ordinary Emeritus Monsignor Jeffrey
Steenson, who in a way made all the festivities
possible when he recognized the need for a bishop
instead of an ordinary and petitioned Rome,
presented the pastoral staff.
The Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis raising
Bishop Lopes to the episcopacy was shown to the
Ordinariate's Governing Council and then read
aloud to all assembled by Ordinariate Chancellor
Laurel Miller.
Splendid music was provided by the combined
voices of the choir of Our Lady of Walsingham
Church (now Cathedral), the Archdiocesan choir
and the co-cathedral's schola, under the direction
of Mr. Edmund Murray, organist and choirmaster
of the Ordinariates new Cathedral of Our Lady of
Walsingham. It was an exquisite mix of music from
the Anglican and Catholic traditions, including
I Was Glad by Parry, the Kyrie and Gloria from Healey Willans Missa de Sancta
Maria Magdalena, and a new piece by Richard Clark, Magna Opera Domini,
commissioned by our new cathedral for this occasion, as well as works by Byrd,
Bach, and Hassler. Classic hymns Christ is Made the Sure Foundation and
Newmans Praise to the Holiest in the Height opened and closed the mass. The
Offertory hymn was To Thee, O Gracious Father with words by Father Christopher
Phillips, pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Church (a Catholic parish in San
Antonio, Texas using the Divine Worship Missal; it was the first founded under
Pope Saint John Paul II's Pastoral Provision for Episcopal priests wishing to come
into full communion with the Church).

The State of the Ordinariates

Msgr. Harry Entwhistle

A highlight of the days in Houston was a gathering at

which the three ordinaries from around the world
spoke. Monsignor Steenson turned the proceedings
over Monsignor Keith Newton, Ordinary of the
Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the
U.K., and Monsignor Harry Entwistle, Ordinary of the
Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern
Cross in Australia. Monsignor Newton joked that other
Catholic clergy repeatedly ask him, When are you
going to become a proper Catholic? He chuckled but
went on to say that Ordinariate members had better
have a good answer to this question that explains why
this new structure is important to the Catholic Church

Msgr. Keith Newton

as a whole. He said that the ordinariates exist as a

prophetic sign that unity is possible. He also talked
about the lack of buildings, which makes the work of
ordinariates more difficult, but added that Our Lady of
Walsingham has had enormous success with annual
outreach missions titled Called to be One, Called to
be Holy, and Called to be Catholic. Monsignor
Newton has been asked to carry Cardinal Newman's
own crozier at ceremonies later this year at the
Birmingham Oratory.
Monsignor Entwistle, ordinary of the Personal
Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, told
what it was like to be responsible for an ordinariate that
encompasses such a vast geographic space and is also
sparsely populated outside of major urban areas
(Australia has an area as large as the continental United
States, but with a population smaller than that of Texas).
To deal with this, he has developed what he calls a
theology of the diaspora, using videos and online
communities to supplement the ordinary's travel. The
Australians, he said, are especially devoted to the rosary
because there were so few priests on the continent.
Because of this, Australia is sometimes called Our
Lady's second Dowry.

In addition to the solemn events, there was an Ordinariate Festival before the
consecration mass which featured Texas barbecue, an art exhibition (with a painting
by parishioner Patrick Delaney), country music, bag pipes, and horses to ride. Both
Cardinal Mller and Bishop Lopes were persuaded to saddle up that day.

The Ordinariate
Festival

Meet and Greet the Morning After

Lenten Food Drive

St. Luke's, with the assistance of the St. Luke's Knights of Columbus Roundtable, will be
participating Catholic Charities' Lenten food drive to serve food-insecure families and
individuals. We will distribute grocery bags for members to take home and fill on Sunday
February 28, and collection of the bags will take place the next Sunday, March 6. The food
will benefit the Capital Area Food Bank. We encourage parishioners to begin collecting
appropriate non-perishable food items now. To ensure that the food bank receives what is
really needed, please look at the link below and see what categories of foods are paired with
the first letter of your last name. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to answer the Gospel
call to serve those in need. We want everyone at St. Luke's to participate, even if all that you
can give is a small item or two. Such offerings can be given in the spirit of the widow's mite.
https://www.catholiccharitiesdc.org/file/documents/Lenten-Food-Drive-2016-baginstructions.pdf

Evensong on February 21st

VIGIL OF THE FEAST OF THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER

St. Luke's at Immaculate Conception invites you to a special service of Solemn Evensong to
be held on the Vigil of the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 21 at 7:30 pm at
Immaculate Conception. It will be a solemn but festive occasion with both our choir and
schola providing music, followed by a wine and cheese reception to which all are welcome.
The feast of The Chair of Saint Peter is the patronal feast of the American Ordinariate.
Celebrated in Rome at least since the fourth century, it commemorates Christ's giving to St.
Peter authority over His Church. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hailed this feast as one that
renders thanks to God for the mission entrusted to the Apostle Peter and to his
successors. As such, it is the perfect name to express the fulfillment of the journey of
Ordinariate parishes from Anglicanism into full communion with the successors of Peter. It
should be noted that there is an actual chair identified with this feast. Long associated with
St. Peter's activities in Rome, the chair is now enclosed in a magnificent Bernini sculpture in
the apse of St. Peter's Basilica. While the history of the chair may be obscure, Archbishop
Augustine Di Noia preached a sermon for Ordinariate members on a pilgrimage to Rome in
2014 in which he reminded them that the chair is an instance of the remarkable
concreteness of Catholic sensibility, adding that the association of an existing
episcopal cathedra to be venerated spurs our faith and devotion as we contemplate the grace
of the petrine ministry.
Please join us and bring friends who will appreciate this reverent and beautiful service of
worship.

Music This Month

7 February: Quinquagesima
Missa de Beata Virgine [Cristbal de Morales, 1540]
Benedictus es [Ludwig Bonvin, early 20th century]
Ave Domine Jesu Christe [Cristbal de Morales, 1546]
14 February: The First Sunday in Lent
Missa Spe Salvi [Peter Kwasniewski, 1995, 2002]
Scapulis suis [Vinzenz Goller, early 20th century]
My Jesus, Mercy [Peter Kwasniewski, circa 2000]
21 February: The Second Sunday in Lent
Missa Tribus Vocibus [Christoph Dalitz, 1988]
Meditabor [Joseph Gruber, early 20th century]
O vos omnes [Jacquet de Mantua, 1539]
28 February: The Third Sunday in Lent
Missa Brevis [James Macmillan, 1977]
Iustitiae Domine [Vinzenz Goller, early 20th century]
Astiterunt reges terrae [Toms Luis de Victoria, 1585]

Liturgical Changes for Lent

During Lent we will be using a different penitential form that is used by some other
Ordinariate parishes. No doubt to the delight of many, this includes a Penitential Rite that is
closer in wording to the beloved Anglican General Confession for the Communion service
that is one of the most memorable prayers of English Christianity.

The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, along with the Confiteor, will be said by the altar party
in the sacristy just before the announcements. Then, after the arrival and collective
genuflection of the clergy and altar servers and the usual singing of the Introit with initial
censing f the altar, the celebrant will go directly into the Collect for Purity, followed by the
Summary of the Law, the Kyrie and the Collect for the Day. The Penitential Rite will follow
the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ's Church and the World, with all but the celebrant
kneeling, followed by the prayer for absolution and the Comfortable Words, after which we
will stand up for the Offertory.
We will return to our regular forms after Lent but this form of the liturgy is not only
appropriate for the Lenten Season but it is good opportunity to ensure the continued use of
these beautiful prayers and forms that are part of our Anglican patrimony.

Into Our Future

Isnt Lent a time for penitence, fasting, almsgiving and the like? Yes, of course it is, but is it
not also a time to discipline ourselves to prepare for our future the promise of salvation
made by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord? Jesus is our future! Thus,
during this penitential season we are properly challenged to think of our future.
Several years ago, when St. Lukes came over into the Catholic Church and the Ordinariate,
some of us were involved in a future planning activity. That activity included such fronts as
evangelization, Christian formation, mission, and stewardship. It involved people not only
from the original Bladensburg parish but also our brethren in the Northern Virginia suburbs
and the District of Columbia. Among other things, that planning led to a sense that the
three communities ought to be one, culminating in the acceptance of the generous offer of
the venerable Immaculate Conception Parish in central DC for us to share quarters with
them. All of us moved to our new home in September 2014.
Should that move be viewed as a step into our future? The experience of other Ordinariate
and Anglican Use parishes points that way. Our friends at one Texas parish cite their
beginning as a small community, thence moving into or building subsequent places and
emerging as one of the largest Catholic parishes (yes, even as an Anglican Use parish) in
their metropolitan area. Here in our nations capital, cannot we do the same?
In a letter to us three years ago, our pastor suggested that Our ideal is to have one parish
church. In the fullness of time, a permanent location will emerge, preceded by a capital
campaign. It is also possible that our success in building our faith community will result in
more than one permanent location. But in the meantime, God will continue to call us to
viable arrangements for worship and mission - lighthouses for the faith. Weve achieved
that initial ideal, but in the meantime God will continue to call us. Well also move forward
in all of the elements that express our faith.
What, then, does this mean to us and our future with Jesus? It calls us to have a vision. That
vision should include future lighthouses for the faith. On the stewardship front, our vision
should also involve planned giving; we may not yet be ready for a capital campaign per se,
but our Anglican Patrimony reminds us that we are called upon to provide for the future of
our families and the Church by means of wills and other planned giving. Well be learning
more about why and how we can do this each Sunday during Lent.
During his forty days of fasting and prayer in the desert, Jesus was very much engaged in
preparing for His future. Let us emulate Him by visioning and empowering our own future
as a vibrant, faithful part of His Church!

10

Remarks of Bishop Steven Lopes to his priests and people

at the end of his Consecration Mass

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Please be seated. [laughter] Don't worry--that
is not a portent for things to come. [more laughter] But at the conclusion of such a
beautiful celebration, I invite you to join me in gratitude. We do not pause now to
thank ourselves because we know that you and I are not the architects of our worship
or our fellowship. Rather, we offer praise and thanks to Almighty God--Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit--for the great privilege of participating in His work of grace. We
thank God for the communion of the Church, rooted in the communion of the
blessed Trinity, in which we are bound together by the Spirit's tether. We thank God
for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and for his Spirit-prompted vision of unity and faith
in a diversity of expression which informs the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum
Coetibus. [applause] And we thank God for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, for putting
this vision into concrete expression. We thank God for men of
journalists and family wisdom and courage, like Cardinal William Levada, Cardinal Gerhard
Muller, Archbishop Augustine DiNoia--architects of both the
and friends have all apostolic constitution and its implementation. And Cardinal Donald
asked me about the Wuerl, America's catechist, and Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, who
guided the formation of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in
meaning of my our own country. We thank God for men and women of faith, from
episcopal motto Saint Augustine of Canterbury down to our own day who have helped
us to respond to the voice of the Lord Jesus, who have enriched the
Magna Opera Domini, Church with the noble patrimony of English Christianity, and who
Great are the Works have formed in us a passion for truth. And who have blessed us when
that same passion has prompted us to seek the fullness of Catholic
of the Lord. communion under the successor of St. Peter the Apostle.
And I have resisted On this night, I give profound thanks for the love and support of my
and my friends, many of them here tonight. The home is
telling them. Because family
Nazareth, the first school of faith and charity, and as I look at the
it was something that shape of my life and the adventure of my priestly vocation, so much of
comes from the learned faith and love of my father Jose, God rest
I needed to share with ithim,
and of course of my mother Barbara. Thank God for them.
you first. [applause]
As this is one of the first times when the faithful of our Ordinariate
have gathered together from across the United States and Canada in faith and
fellowship, we glimpse something of the magnitude of this work. The spirit of God is
indeed stirring hearts and forging bonds of communion in a world that is all too
fractured and divided. It is indeed a rare privilege for a bishop to come into a diocese
already having a knowledge and a relationship with the priests and the deacons.
[Bishop Lopes turns to the section where the clergy of the Ordinariate are seated]
Yet, my dear brothers, over these years--either in person or through my work at the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith--I have met each one of you. And since
the announcement of my appointment, journalists and family and friends have all
asked me about the meaning of my episcopal motto Magna Opera Domini, Great are
the Works of the Lord. And I have resisted telling them. Because it was something
that I needed to share with you first.

11

Remember several years ago when we were together in Florida at that clergy
assembly? It was the first time for me to meet many of you and finally put faces to
the spiritual autobiographies that I had been reading in the dossiers that you
submitted to Rome. Yours were stories of faith, and of courage, and for a passion
and zeal for the truth, and the search of the truth in Sacred Scripture. And they were
also often enough stories of sacrifice, suffering, and the anguish of leaving what was
familiar and comfortable in order to embark on an unknown and sometimes lonely
path towards the fullness of Catholic communion.
It was the final Mass on that last day of the assembly, and we were sitting together in
silence after Holy Communion. I was, in my
Communion meditations, simply looking
around the chapel at each of you. And
moving from face to face, linking that in my
own mind to the stories I already knew.
Father Lewis. Father Hough. Father Ousley.
Father Kenyon. And so it went, on and on.
Father Sharbach and Father Gipson weren't
even ordained yet, and their stories were
fresh. And in that moment, beholding, if
you will, before me the great work of
communion manifest in that chapel, my
heart was moved to only one thought:

We did not do this.

God did this.
This is the work of the Lord.
And great are the works of the Lord.
Now last night I promised lots of things, and you heard me repeat a lot of those
promises today. One is fidelity to the Roman Pontiff. And so, I shall let the Holy
Father have the final word tonight. When I met with Pope Francis to discuss my
appointment as your bishop, he was, I must say, very well informed about the
Ordinariate. He knew where we had come from, and what we had sacrificed to get
here. He was not only excited by the witness of faith and by the vitality that the men
and women of the Ordinariate bring to the Church. No, he was excited for the
Church, and for us. since he knows well that the great gifts of grace held in store for
those who, docile to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, follow the Lord's call with
conviction--well, God will work wonders. And so I asked him, at the end of that
conversation, what message he wanted me to bring back to the faithful and the
clergy of the Ordinariate and share with you tonight. He responded simply, and
strongly, Avanti. Go forward.
And so there is our mandate: Go forward. Preach the Gospel. Show the world that
Christian discipleship is indeed joyful. And that the communion of the Church is
indeed worth committing our lives to.
We have a lot of work ahead of us, building this Ordinariate and bringing the gifts
we have been given to full flower. But we are not afraid. We are not daunted. We go
forward. For it is the Lord that accomplishes all measure of good in us. And great are
the works of the Lord.

From the Pastor

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1315 8th Street NW

Washington DC 20001
The Very Rev. Mark W. Lewis, Pastor

Office
4002 53rd Street
Bladensburg, MD 20710

202-999-9934
StLukesOrdinariate.com
St. Lukes at Immaculate Conception is a
parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the
Chair of Saint Peter, which was
established on January 1, 2012 by Pope
Benedict XVI in response to repeated
requests by Anglicans seeking to
become Catholic. Ordinariate parishes
are fully Catholic while retaining
elements of their Anglican heritage and
traditions, including liturgical traditions.

The Personal Ordinariate

of the Chair of Saint Peter
That we all may be one

As we enter February, I cannot help but recall our journey. Of course I

cannot go into much depth in such a short article, but I do wish to reflect
upon two events that have crossed paths, and will forever be tied together.
We begin the month with the Ordination Mass of the very first Bishop of the
Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. A Bishop is of course an
apostle, a man who not only stands in the long line of Apostolic Succession,
but who teaches, and defends the faith of the Apostles. He represents the
unity of his diocese and the Church as he is in communion with his brother
bishops and the Pontiff of Rome.
I also want to reflect a little about another milestone. February 2016, marks
the 10th anniversary of my coming to St. Lukes. I believe it is safe to say
neither you or I could have predicted the route our journey has taken. The
people of St. Lukes and I were committed to seeking truth, standing firm in
it and proclaiming it to others; little did we realize where our quest for truth
would leadwhere else could it lead but Rome? So we, pastor and people,
stepped out in faith, to follow truth. In our journey we were joined by others
who were making the same faith journey, and still others who had made the
same journey long before and were waiting to welcome us home.
Together we all have decided to step out in faith to become members of this
new Catholic structure called The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St.
Peter. Though the Ordinariate was to maintain elements of Anglican
Patrimony, which we all love, we had no guarantees about its future. With
the propagation of Divine Worship Missal, Rome has preserved what our
Anglican Patrimony truly isthat which can edify the whole Church. The

ordination of Bishop Lopes has an even greater significance for the Church, and in
particular, members of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Bishop Lopes
is assurance that the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is a permanent part
of the Catholic Church.
What a journey it has been! Historic! It is the faith of people like you that has allowed for
the development and implementation of the Personal Ordinariates. Your faith has
opened the way for future generations to come home to Holy Mother Church.
I am blessed to have made this journey with you.
May our Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless our journey!